Lollipops and Treetops
In describing her own attempts at being an artist, Jemmy confides to Otis and Ann the reason why she has never allowed anyone to see her drawings. The admission makes one wonder, perhaps, just how many potentially great artists were destroyed by the power of childhood stupidity:
"Once I drew an oak tree like the one by your driveway; I showed it to Roxanne Rooster on the school bus and she said it looked like a lollipop on a stick. That's when I decided never to show my drawings to anybody again."
Jemmy and the Maiden
The role of artist’s model is more complicated than it looks and that’s not even talking about the sheer physicality required for posing. In the sections which detail the actual process of painting, much is learned about how the model and the subject are not always the same and yet can never been separated entirely:
“In the mural I am portraying only one side of you, Jemmy—your gravity. I do not portray your grace. Your ability to carry heavy burdens as though they weren't heavy. Your manner of moving gracefully through obstacles as though you didn't recognize them as obstacles.”
But Just a Little
Otis is an artist. And the artist sometimes must put the art ahead of literally anything and everything. The stories of such artists are chock full of wives and mistresses and lovers who have reached the following metaphorical conclusion:
“There’s more to being an artist’s wife than meets the eye, Jemmy. It’s clear to me know that Otis is married to his art as well as to me. It’s a little like bigamy.”
A Bunch of Artists Sitting Around Talking
A party is being held to celebrate the Maiden and artists and art lovers gather around to discuss and offer opinions about exactly what is in the model that Otis tapped into to create such a mesmerizing work. And on it goes. Long before Jemmy—reveling at first in the attention—reaches the point exhaustion at which metaphor takes over, the reader will likely have already gotten there:
“As midnight approached the chatter began to sound to Jemmy like the high-itched gabble of excited geese”
Irony
Metaphor meets irony in the form of proverbial philosophy that seems like it should be applied one way only for Jemmy to recognize it applies the other. Artists are supposed to see things figuratively, but without a firm grasp on their literal perspective, the whole premise would collapse:
“Somewhere Jemmy has read that eyes were the windows of the soul, but she decided it wasn’t true in this case. Eyes, to the painter, were simply eyes.”
